Union Pacific Other Menus

Menus shown here include non-color wrap-around photo menus that mostly date from before 1947; menus with Howard Fogg paintings commissioned by the UP for the 1969 Golden Spike centennial; children’s menus; and menus for special meals or occasions. Click on an image to download a PDF of that menu. Click on the brief description below to go to the page describing that menu.

Art Nouveau Series

These menus were used from the late 1920s to 1935. The early ones feature photos printed using the lithographic process, sometimes called “hand-colored.” Later ones use “natural color” photos. The photos and text are surrounded by a busy border in an art nouveau style. Curiously, the Bryce and Zion menus come in at least three slightly different versions even though most are clearly based on the same original photo.

In 1935, probably due to the introduction of Union Pacific’s first streamliners, the railroad simplified its menus with a white background and a few stripes, but still using the same photos and text as in the Art Nouveau series. I only have two of these menus but I’ve identified others showing Multnomah Falls and more scenes in Southern Utah parks. The fact that Yosemite is featured in both the Art Nouveau and Modern series makes it especially mystifying that it isn’t found on any color wraparound menu.

The Modern series didn’t last long, as UP introduced a series with black-and-white photos of parks and other sights. Instead of photos that wrapped around the menu, these used two different photos on the front and back covers.

UP had some menus designed for its premiere heavyweight trains including the Los Angeles Limited and Portland Rose. Early in the history of these menus, the premiere status of these trains was displaced by the streamliners, but the streamliners initially did not go every day.

This is a catch-all category that includes a cute beverage menu, one of a series of World War II menus, a Chef’s Salad menu that was used on UP passenger trains for many years, Christmas menus, and menus used on special trains after UP ceased to operate passenger trains.

I claim no copyright for any of the PDFs of documents I've scanned and posted on this site. People may freely use these scans for research or other non-commercial purposes. The railroads that produced these documents may have their own copyright claims.